Court documents: Ryan Welch and Jessica Ann Pripstein seen arguing just before she was killed in Easthampton

Left: LinkedIn.com profile photo; right: Easthampton Police Dept.Jessica Pripstein, left, was found stabbed to death in her Easthampton apartment in the early hours of Feb. 20. Ryan Welch, right, has been charged with killing her.

NORTHAMPTON – On Feb. 19, just hours before Ryan D. Welch allegedly killed his girlfriend Jessica Ann Pripstein in her apartment, the two had an argument at Amy’s Place, the Easthampton bar and restaurant the couple frequented, according to court documents.

According to the affidavit in support of a search warrant application, the two argued “after they came up short on paying their bar/food bill.”

Just after midnight, Pripstein called police screaming that her boyfriend was trying to kill her, according to a state police probable cause statement. When police arrived at her Easthampton apartment, she was dead as a result to a sharp force injury to her neck.

Welch was found unresponsive in her apartment from a self-inflicted wound, police said. Welch's injuries were initially life-threatening and he was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where he was treated.

He is being held at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction, according to court documents, and is scheduled to appear in District Court on Friday for a pre-trial conference. He had been arraigned in the hospital Feb. 22.

According to the affidavit, friends told police “there was tension” in the relationship “because Mr. Welch was not working and was short on money.” Pripstein was a licensed aesthetician and worked at Liora Gabrielle European Skin Care in Northampton. She had worked on an off at Adamo's Pizzeria for three or four years.

According to police records, Welch had been arrested on drunk driving charges on Valentine's Day after he hit a utility pole near where he lived. When police responded he told them “he had been drinking wine, and that he had been in a fight with his girlfriend earlier in the evening,” according to the affidavit.

On Feb. 19, according to the affidavit filed after police reviewed digital surveillance video, Welch “appears to be speaking very intensely” to Pripstein and leans into her “in an aggressive manner.” The two are seated facing the bar area of the restaurant and his actions draw the attention of the bartender and another patron.

Welch is later seen writing intensely on a napkin and Pripstein later is observed making notes on a piece of paper, according to the document. At one point Welch leaves the bar but returns and “he continues talking in an intense manner.”

Pripstein is “seen attempting to calm Mr. Welch.” The couple left the bar a little after 11 p.m. that night, according to the affidavit. At six minutes past midnight, Pripstein called police and said her boyfriend was trying to kill her.

Welch lived in the city-owned, South Middlesex Non-Profit Housing Corporation-run housing on Oliver Street, described as supportive sober housing that offers shared community living while residents there have their own bedroom. Welch had lived there for three or four years.

He told police when he was in the hospital that “he was behind on his rent seven weeks and was worried about being evicted while he was in the hospital.”

At his apartment police said they found numerous prescription bottles, including Lexapro, used for depression and anxiety disorder; Bupropion, also used to treat depression; Clonazepam, used to control seizures; Gabapentin, also used for seizures; and Suboxone, used to treat opioid dependence, according to medical literature.